大象传媒

During WW2 I lived with my family in Northolt, Middlesex, quite close to the Northolt Aerodrome, which at that time was home to Polish squadrons of Hurricanes and a few Spitfires.

I remember one afternoon my brother and I were standing on a small hill overlooking the runway of the airfield, (I was approximately l0 years old and he was 12 years) when a Wellington bomber made its approach to land. As this plane was considerably larger than the customary Hurricanes, we became quite excited at the prospect of seeing such a big aircraft land. As the plane banked to straighten up to approach the runway, it just dropped out of the sky and exploded. Ammunition in its magazines ignited causing a continuous fireball for some time. We understood later that it crashed on waste ground just in front of the runway where sadly local children's were playing football. I recall that approximately 21 people were killed.

On the same runway approach, within the War period, a RAF Dakota aircraft crash landed on top of a house. This became quite a local attraction as it sat on the rooftop more or less intact.

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